Fruita did right by Enoch’s Lake
After months of meetings and public comments and outside efforts to preserve public access to Enoch’s Lake, the same three individuals who wanted to buy the lake in the first place were the only ones to make an offer. Was this all just a waste of time? We don’t think so.
Last spring, Fruita got an offer from Ronald Tipping, Stan Muhr and Rodney Power to purchase Enoch’s Lake, which is near Glade Park. Citizens came out and voiced concerns about public access to trails and the lake itself. The City Council decided to pump the brakes and came up with an open and transparent process to sell the property and water rights.
The Fruita City Council deserves credit for listening to their constituents and doing the right thing by making this an open and fair process.
At the end of the day, the same three individuals submitted the same offer they made to the city last spring — $500,000 for ownership of the lake and water rights and the buyers would forgive $140,000 the city owed to Tipping in non-monetary terms. The city is now going through the ordinance process, but seems likely to sign off on the sale. That’s fair.
When a city wants to sell property, there needs to be an open and transparent process. After all, city property belongs to the citizens. In this case, Fruita did just that.
We also want to give credit to Tipping, Muhr and Power. They saw how much access to this lake means to people and made a commitment to allow some public access to the lake on a limited basis in a letter they submitted with their offer.
“Government agencies such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Mesa County, City of Fruita may be able to reserve Enoch, but must provide adequate insurance protection for the liability exposure, including coverage for the… purchasers and their entities,” the letter states.
We also think the community members who started the Friends of Enoch’s Lake group, which sought to preserve public access to the lake, deserve credit as well. They tried to find a public entity or nonprofit to purchase the lake. That they did not end up succeeding doesn’t mean their efforts weren’t worthwhile. They were.
The City of Fruita has several other properties with reservoirs on them on Pinon Mesa near Glade Park that it intends to divest itself from. It should look at the Friend of Enoch’s Lake and all its supporters and take the desire to preserve public access to these areas seriously.
The people of Mesa County, and most Coloradans, place a high value on being able to go outside and recreate on public land. We understand why Fruita doesn’t want the responsibility of owning and maintaining these properties. They’re far from the city limits and the dams are aging and at least one needs significant investment to make it safe.
The city intends to reach out to other public agencies, like the U.S. Forest Service, to see if they can donate these properties to another public entity.
We think that is the right move and hope someone else is willing to take these properties on and maintain access to them. Fruita should do whatever it can to keep its remaining properties public, even as it understandably works to get out of the mountain property business.
